Rapid LED NanoCube 28 CF Quad Retrofit

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Rapid LED NanoCube 28 CF Quad Retrofit
Contents
Foreword....................................................................................................................................................... 1
Outline .......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Hood Preparation.......................................................................................................................................... 2
Attaching LEDs to Heatsink and Wiring LEDs Together ................................................................................ 6
Thermal Grease ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Soldering Notes ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Tinning Wire and LEDs .............................................................................................................................. 7
Tinning LEDs .............................................................................................................................................. 8
Wiring the LED String(s) ................................................................................................................................ 8
Attaching the Heatsink to the NC28 CF Quad Hood ................................................................................... 10
Wiring Fans ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Wiring the LED Strings to the Drivers ......................................................................................................... 14
Wiring the Driver to AC Power.................................................................................................................... 15
Using a Meanwell Dimmable Driver (Skip if using a non-dimmable driver) ............................................... 16
Wiring the Driver Dimmer Wires ............................................................................................................ 16
Adjusting Driver Current – Do this before applying power .................................................................... 17
Adjusting Driver Current with a Multimeter ............................................................................................... 17
Using a Rapid LED Nano Dimmable Driver with 700mA Max. Current (Skip if not using this driver) ......... 19
Finish ........................................................................................................................................................... 19
Foreword
As with any type of lighting retrofit, there are many dangers, difficulties, and pitfalls that may
occur. The NC28 CF Quad retrofit should be attempted by those familiar with AC power and wiring,
electronics, LEDs, LED Drivers, soldering LEDs, series circuits, and be comfortable with the fact that this
retrofit will require complete disassembly and removal of some contents of the original hood. If you are
uncomfortable with potential hazards, dangers, or pitfalls that may occur in the course of performing
this retrofit, you should not attempt this retrofit. NOTE: These instructions are for installing the
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individual LEDs in your hood. If you are using the kit with an Aurora array, refer to the instructions
located here: JBJ Nanocube 28 CF Quad Aurora Array Instructions
Outline
Here is a general outline of steps we think end up with the easiest retrofit:
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Remove unnecessary components from hood
Attach LEDs to heatsink and wire up LED string. Insert heatsink into hood.
Complete wiring for LEDs, driver and fans
Close hood and test
Hood Preparation
In this step, we will remove:
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Plastic and glass cover / splash guard
CF Quad Bulb
o Thermostat
o Ground Wire
Ballast
Fan Power Transformer
Original Power cord
First, remove all screws holding down the plastic cover. Remove it along with the glass.
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Next, remove the two screws holding down the CF Quad Bulb. Remove them and unclip the blub.
Next, remove the two screws on the right side of the reflector.
The reflector is almost free from the hood. On the back side, it has a ground wire and a thermostat
attached to it. Gently lift the reflector from the hood, flip it over and remove the thermostat which is
attached by nuts and bolts in the center of the reflector and cut the ground wire. After this is done,
remove the reflector.
Next, unclip the CF Quad bulb and remove it.
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Your hood should look like the picture below:
To remove the ballast, press down on the spring terminals on the end and pull the wires out:
Unscrew both ends and lift the ballast from the hood:
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To remove the original fan power transformer, unscrew the two mounting screws and cut the blue and
brown wires as close to the white wire crimps as possible. We want the brown and blue wires long so
we can attach our own AC adapter to them later (to power the fans).
Next, cut the power wire from the hood, in between the outermost inlet and the lighting inlet. The
power wire is thick and can be difficult to cut, please exercise care when cutting this wire. After it is cut,
remove the inner end of the power wire and all wires attached to it, including the transformer. We’ll
use the hole to route the power wires for the LEDs later on. At this point, your hood should be prepped.
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Attaching LEDs to Heatsink and Wiring LEDs Together
In the next set of steps, we will attach the LEDs to the heatsink, tin the LEDs and the wire used to
connect the LEDs together, and then wire the LEDs together. After all of this is complete, we will insert
the heatsink into the hood of the NC28 HQI.
Thermal Grease
We need to apply thermal grease to the back of each LED before securing it to the heatsink.
Thermal grease ensures proper thermal conductivity of heat away from the LED into the heatsink. A
very small dab of grease on the back of each LED is all that is necessary. More is NOT necessarily better.
Too little will lower conductivity and too much will create a mess. A thin layer works best. The photo
below indicates approximately about how much thermal grease should be applied.
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After the thermal grease has been applied to the star, screw it into the heatsink with two little
screws, adjusting the height of the two fastening screws to center the LED between them. Do not over
tighten. The screws should be snug but not tight. When screwing down the LEDs, ensure the screw is
not touching any solder or solder pads. This will ground the string at that point and cause strange
behavior and possibly, damage. The included nylon washers will aid in insulating the screws from the
LED.
Example of properly secured LEDs:
Soldering Notes
Now that the LEDs are securely attached to the heatsink with thermal grease, any heat applied
to the solder pads (the little gold pads) of the LEDs will be quickly conducted away into the heatsink.
When soldering, this will be a problem if your soldering iron does not have a clean, tinned tip (new is
best) or does not have enough power – we recommend at least a 50 watt soldering iron. An iron that
does not produce enough heat will fail to melt the solder properly. This can result in a cold solder joint
which has a very high probability of creating a short/intermittent connection, which has a high
probability of destroying all of your LEDs. You should at most take 1-5 seconds to complete each solder
joint. Leaving the iron touching a solder pad for longer than that is not advised. It also probably means
your soldering iron is not hot enough or the wattage is too low.
Tinning Wire and LEDs
Tinning is the process of pre-coating the wire, or solder pad, in the case of an LED, with solder.
Tinned wire and solder pads are more easily soldered together than non-tinned components. This step
is to save headache and trouble later – attempting to solder un-tinned components can cause huge
problems down the line.
To tin wire, heat the wire (not the solder) with the tip of a clean soldering iron for a few
seconds. After the wire is heated, apply solder to the wire (not the tip of the iron). Since solder flows
towards heat sources, it should melt on to and flow through the strands of the wire, coating them
evenly.
There are two photos below. The left is of un-tinned wire, the right is of the same wire tinned.
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Tinning LEDs
LEDs are tinned similarly to wire. Press the tip of the soldering iron to the LED solder pad and
apply solder near the tip of the iron. You do not need too much solder. You can tin all of the solder
pads or only the ones you will use. The top photo below is an un-tinned LED. The photo below it has
the bottom left solder pad tinned. If the pad does not get warm enough, the solder will not adhere well.
Ensure some heat gets into the solder pad, but not too much.
Wiring the LED String(s)
*****NEVER APPLY POWER TO THE LED DRIVER BEFORE ALL WIRING IS COMPLETE *****
For the NC28 CF Quad Retrofit, your heatsink will have spaces for 24 LEDs, but you can only use
20. Leave the rightmost or leftmost column empty.
Below are two photos of what your heatsink might look like if you are using Rapid LED Solderless LEDs:
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Heatsink With 8 Solderless LEDs
Heatsink With 20 Solderless LEDs. Leftmost column unused.
If you will be soldering your LEDs, wiring the LEDs is done as a string in series. The string is a
series circuit wired + to – (or – to +, depending on where you start) starting from one wire on the driver,
from LED to LED, to the other wire on the driver.
Below is a photograph of 13 Royal Blue XT-E LEDs wired together and marked + to – all the way
around with the string beginning with the leftmost “+” in the photo. Again, do NOT power the driver
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until the wiring is complete. You risk burning out your LEDs, a very expensive mistake. Repeat this
process for each LED string.
You may have a separate driver for blue and white LEDs. If you do, ensure you attach at least the
minimum number of LEDs for the particular model driver you have.
Attaching the Heatsink to the NC28 CF Quad Hood
There are 4 screws that attach the NC28 HQI heatsink to the hood, two on each side. Simply
place the heatsink over the 4 mounting posts in the hood that line up with the heatsink holes and screw
the heatsink to the hood. The screws only take a few twists to secure the heatsink to the hood. Be very
careful to not over tighten the heatsink mounting screws as it is especially easy to do so with this
retrofit.
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Your heatsink should now be securely fastened to the hood:
Wiring Fans
The fans will be powered by the 12V AC adapter included with your kit. We will use it to power
the fans by connecting it to the brown and blue wires from the PCB in the NC28 HQI hood.
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Cut the end off of the included 12V AC adapter. Run the AC adapter wire through the vent slot
nearest the moonlight AC Adapter Jack.
Now, route the AC Adapter wire through the rubber grommet as pictured below on the right.
Next, separate the AC Adapter wires down the middle until they are approximately an inch long. Strip
off approximately half an inch of the outer jacket from each wire. You should now have the AC Adapter
wires and PCB brown and blue wires near each other so they can be connected together by wire nuts.
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Next, connect the brown and blue PCB wires to the AC adapter wires. Which wire to which is not
important (because it is rectified).
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Wiring the LED Strings to the Drivers
To modify as little as possible in the original hood, we will use jumper wires to run from the
drivers to the LED strings inside the hood.
Included in the kit are some long lengths of bulk wire. You will need to make jumper wire from
the bulk wire by cutting it into lengths of your choice. The jumper wires need to be long enough to run
from V+ and V- of each driver to the red (+) and black (-) wires on each string of your solderless kit or to
+ and – of the corresponding LEDs in the string you are attaching the driver to.
After you have cut the bulk wire into jumpers, use grey wire nuts to attach the jumper wire to a
driver. Run the jumper wire from the driver through the same hole in the case which the fan AC adapter
wire was run and then through the grommet where the original power wire used to run. Attach the
wire, using wire nuts, to the corresponding wires from your solderless LED string or solder them to + and
– of the corresponding LEDs in the string you are attaching the driver to. Repeat for the second driver.
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Below is a photo of the jumper wires wired to the LED strings with wire nuts.
Wiring the Driver to AC Power
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BE CAREFUL WHEN WORKING WITH 120VAC. Ensure nothing is plugged in before proceeding!
The AC Line and Neutral, or ACL and ACN wires, which are brown and blue, connect to the
power cord included in our kits. Strip the white and black wires of the power cord (green is ground and
unused) and attach them to the blue and brown wires on the driver with the included moisture resistant
wire nuts. Order is not important because AC current alternates. Obviously, this step is dangerous
because you are working with 120VAC. Make sure nothing is plugged in and have a licensed electrician
assist you with this step.
Using a Meanwell Dimmable Driver (Skip if using a non-dimmable driver)
Wiring the Driver Dimmer Wires
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There are 4 output wires on a dimmable driver as in the above photo. The dimming wires, DIM
+ (blue), and DIM – (white), simply hook up to the respective ports on your controller or dimmer.
Dimmable drivers must have the dimmer wires hooked up to a controller or dimmer or the LEDs will not
light up. No dimming signal = 0% brightness.
If you do not have a dimming circuit or controller, you can test by applying a voltage to the
Dimmer + and Dimmer – wires on the driver. This voltage can range from 1-10V. Do NOT exceed 10V or
you risk damaging the dimming circuitry. A 1V reference voltage will light the LEDs to 10% brightness,
whereas a 10V reference voltage will light the LEDs to 100% brightness. You likely have something
around your house that can supply a reference voltage. A “wall wart,” 9V battery, or even a AA battery
can be used for testing. Be sure to test the actual output voltage of your wall wart with a multimeter
before use – unregulated wall warts will output much greater than the output voltage on the label when
used with small loads.
Adjusting Driver Current – Do this before applying power
To adjust the driver output current, open the driver by removing the 4 screws and very gently
rotate SVR2 counter-clockwise until it stops. Counter-clockwise rotation lowers output current and
clockwise rotation raises output current. We have just set current to the minimum. Adjust maximum
driver current such that it does not exceed the specification of your LEDs!
Adjusting Driver Current with a Multimeter
To adjust the driver output to a specific value, you must first wire a multimeter into your LED
string and second, you must ensure the DIM+ and DIM- wires are connected to a dimmer. The dimmer
should be set to full brightness.
The multimeter should be wired into your LED string exactly the same as an LED, + to -, in fact, if
you just pretend it is an LED, you will have no problem measuring current. If you wire the multimeter in
backwards, it will still work, but your measurements will be negative instead of positive.
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To set your multimeter up for measuring current, move the RED probe plug to the 10A socket
and rotate the knob to the 10A position. Multimeters can differ in operation. Please consult your
multimeter manual for model specific operating instructions.
As in the photo below on the right, have a friend firmly hold the probes in a gap in the LED
string. We had to remove a wire in an existing setup for this example. If either probe loses contact with
a solder pad on either LED, do NOT re-touch it to the LED until power has been removed from the driver
for a few minutes, and then start over from the beginning.
The following should be complete before applying power to the driver:
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SVR2 has been gently rotated counter-clockwise until it stops (set to minimum current)
DIM+ and DIM- wires on driver are connected to a dimmer
Dimmer is set to 100% brightness (10VDC MAX)
Multimeter is turned on and set up to measure current
Multimeter is wired into LED string as if it were an LED
Once all of the above have been completed, power the driver and rotate SVR2 clockwise until the
readout on the multimeter displays the desired output current for 100% brightness. In the below
photos, the current begins at .25A, or 250mA. SVR2 was rotated clockwise until the desired maximum
current, .75A, or 750mA. In our example, we wired our probes backwards, thus the – sign. When
measuring current, you can ignore the – sign because we are only interested in the absolute amount of
current flowing through the LED string. Switching the multimeter leads around would have would have
flipped the sign around to +(no sign) in this example.
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Now that you have set the current on your driver by rotating SVR2, un-plug the driver, replace the
cover, and re-wire your LED string.
Using a Rapid LED Nano Dimmable Driver with 700mA Max. Current (Skip if not
using this driver)
The Rapid LED Dimmable Driver with 700mA Maximum current is a 0-10V analog driver. Simply
hook up the wires from your 0-10V lighting controller to the corresponding ports on the driver. They
attach with screw terminals. Once again, ensure all wiring is complete before applying any power!
Finish
Tuck the jumper wires coming off of the LED strings into a slot in the heatsink compartment and
then replace the glass and plastic cover. Enjoy!
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